For all intents and purposes, the Pistons had only six guys they were willing to play in the playoffs last year. Ben Wallace's departure for Chicago reduces that number to five. The seventh and eighth members of Detroit's playoff rotation, Lindsey Hunter and Tony Delk, were old and ineffective and should be allowed to leave as free agents.
Letting the old, bad players go would be easier had Joe Dumars not traded away his best (relatively) young bench player, Maurice Evans, for skinny Senegalese project Cheick Samb. Evans allegedly requested the trade so as not to share minutes with Carlos Delfino next year. Which is odd as Delfino has yet to demonstrate even marginal competence in any facet of the NBA game. Still, he should be better than Alex Acker (should he be re-signed) or Flip Murray, who will fit in not at all with the veteran Pistons. Will Blalock should get minutes before Murray.
It looks like the rest of the bench will be Nazr Mohammed, Jason Maxiell, and what's left of Dale Davis which means that if the starting five stay healthy the Pistons should make the playoffs but if anyone gets hurt, things could get desperate quite quickly.
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